- Prologue -

1st September, 1976.

"Eleanor? Hey, Eleanor. Wake up. C'mon. Gran is dancing on the lawn in her nightie again."

Welcome to my life, folks. My name is Eleanor Wolf, and this is what I put up with on a daily basis. I suppose I should have been more alarmed by this news than I really was. It didn't surprise me that my Gran was currently scarring the eyes of every neighbour on our street, because it wasn't really all that shocking. I mean, Gran liked to ask the plants whether they would prefer jam or butter on their toast every morning, and one time when I was five she made our postman cry, though we're still not sure what she did to make him do that. I guess this will be considered my very first diary entry, which is highly embarrassing seeing as it involves my Gran in her nightie on our front lawn. Mum says Gran is eccentric. Dad says she's just lost her marbles. Then they share a Look that says neither is very happy with the other.

When I was younger, I used to crawl around on my hands and knees searching the house for these 'marbles' to give back to my Gran. I used to think it would make my parents stop their arguing about Gran's alarmingly senile mental state. It didn't. Noah caught me one day, and after I told him what I was trying to do, he laughed until he cried. Not like the postman did though. Noah's were happy tears. He told me to get off the floor and stop being such a 'freak', which is Noah's favourite word for me. He says I'm going to end up like Gran someday, talking to plants and making postmen cry. I really hope he's lying. Despite being my twin brother, Noah is the complete opposite of me. He is loud, attention-grabbing and confident in absolutely everything he does. And apparently, he isn't a freak, either.

"Should we wake Mum and Dad?" he asked as he began dressing himself across the room. He wore an obnoxiously bright orange t-shirt, stretching and admiring himself in the mirror. If anyone loves Noah, it is Noah himself.

"I don't know," I replied softly. "They might start fighting themselves. They always do when it comes to Gran."

"I suppose," Noah shrugged. "Can't let Gran start doing the robot dance with the garden gnomes though, now can we Ellie?"

I stared at the ceiling, wondering what was going through my grandmother's mind when she decided dancing on the lawn was an entirely appropriate thing to do. I guess she really has lost those imaginary marbles. I wish I knew a spell that could fix her. I bet Severus would know one. He knows all sorts of spells, and if he can't find the one he needs, he creates it himself. I admire him for that. I wish I could do that. But I'm dreadful at Potions. Last time I was in Potions class I blew up my cauldron and burnt an entire table. James Potter laughed at me and asked if I was trying to be so bad at the subject, which caused Lily Evans to throw a book at his head.

It was nice of her to stand up for me though. Noah was too busy laughing his head off to really care if what James had said had upset me or not. And then there was Sirius Black, who was far too concerned with wiping soot from his face to notice how flushed my cheeks had become. That's probably a good thing. He would have laughed at me like James had. Remus, however, patted my shoulder and said, "Better luck next time, eh Eleanor?"

Remus is the nicest of all the Marauders, apart from maybe Peter. I don't mean to encourage them by using that self-created nickname, because honestly I don't think James and Sirius could possibly be anymore in love with themselves if they tried, but it's the easiest way of letting people know exactly who you're talking about. When Severus helped mop up the mess left inside my cauldron, I thanked him at least four times, though he only nodded. Severus is very quiet and very shy, which is probably why we get on so well. Sometimes we can sit in silence for hours without it being awkward. He doesn't normally help people, so you can see why I was touched. Anyway, today is the day I go back to all that. The exploding cauldrons, Severus and Lily, and the Marauders. A half-naked, dancing Gran is nothing compared to the Marauders. I might not hang out with them, but this only means getting unwittingly caught up in their pranks.

Noah threw my robes at me. "Get out of bed Eleanor, come on! Do you want us to the miss the train? Why are you always daydreaming?"

Another reason I started this diary is to do exactly what Noah says. To get out of my head. To put everything that comes into my head into an old red book with a golden spine that I found beneath my bed and try to be more like Noah. To be outgoing and loud and popular. Because, if I'm honest, from the day we entered Hogwarts I'm known as 'Noah Wolf's twin sister'. So I get out of bed, I put on a nice dress and I venture downstairs to find my brother sitting at the kitchen table, wolfing down a bowl of cereal. Apparently, Gran's dancing frenzy has ended, because she is sitting beside him reading a newspaper upside down.

She spotted me and smiled gently. "Hello Elizabeth."

Noah snorted into his cereal, grinning. "Her name is Eleanor, Gran. Not Elizabeth. Mum's name is Elizabeth, remember?"

"Yes, Niall, I remember," she said breezily, and he rolls his eyes.

"Noah," he corrected. I don't know why he bothers. Gran sometimes forgets what her own name is. How can he expect her to remember his?

I sat in the seat beside my brother after I got myself a bowl and a glass for my breakfast. We ate in silence, like we usually did. Mum came bustling in, already dressed and looking quite beautiful. I might be my mother's only daughter, but sometimes I think she forgets I'm even here. She glanced at Noah, before she sighed. "Sit up straight Noah, are you trying to look like a bloody hunch-back?"

Noah imitates what I think is supposed to be a hunch-back, and Gran looks at him, bewildered. "My, Nathan, whatever are you doing?"

"Noah, Gran, it's Noah. Not Nathan."

She shrugged and went back to her upside-down newspaper.

"Fix your hair Noah. Have you ever heard of a hair-brush before?"

"I'm going for a bed-head look Mum, you wouldn't understand. It's fashionable these days."

"Fashionable to look like a hobo all the time?" Mum asks curtly, and Noah sticks his tongue out at her behind her back. I giggled and he flashed a smile at me. Dad arrives a few minutes later, giving both Noah and I a kiss on our foreheads before he apologizes and says he's late for work. I'm not even sure what he does, my dad. He never talks about it. Mum doesn't tell us anything either. He must work for the Ministry. He wears a suit. That must count for something. Noah burps loudly, and Mum glares darkly at him.

Noah and my Mum fight a lot. I hate it. I tend to hide out in our bedroom and put a pillow over my ears to block them out, but that never works. As if that weren't enough, my Mum and Dad like to fight about things too. Mainly my Gran. Dad says she should be put somewhere safe, like a home for old people. They share one of those Looks I was telling you about. It usually ends in Mum bursting into tears, which causes Dad to feel guilty, and they end up hugging and apologizing to one another. Gran is never put into that old folks' home Dad babbles about, and all is well again. Mum quickly gets us ready, forcing Noah to put our trunks in the car. Gran is made to come with us. Last year, Mum came to pick us up and left Gran at home. Gran ended up blowing up the microwave. Now she isn't allowed to be alone for more than a few minutes.

Gran thinks we go to a boarding school, Noah and I. Which, I suppose, is exactly what we do. She just doesn't know it's a magical type of boarding school. Hey, this diary could be like a guidebook for my fellow witches, couldn't it? How to Survive Hogwarts, the Marauders and their awful pranks, being hopeless at Potions, having a twin that outshines you and a mentally unhinged Grandmother! I bet books would fly off the shelves. Maybe then Mum would tell me to straighten up and fix my hair instead of just Noah. At the station, Mum has to let Noah and I go to Platform Nine and Three Quarters by ourselves. Firstly, she is a Muggle, and secondly, she cannot leave Gran alone in a car. If she can blow up a microwave, what else can she do?

"Look after your little sister Noah!" she calls out to us as we leave.

I don't know why she says that. He is just ten minutes older. In Noah's mind, he is the oldest twin and therefore rules everything. Our room was painted a sky blue colour, which is his favourite, whereas I wanted it red. Noah won. Though I don't really mind. Blue is nice too. "C'mon, little sis," he teased as we dragged our trunks with us. "Or we'll miss the train and have to listen to Gran call us by our wrong names until we can find some other way to Hogwarts."

We board the train. We're probably the first people on it. Even so, Noah turns to me and says, "Right then, see you at the Sorting Ceremony Ellie." He walks off, taking his trunk with him. He enters a compartment six doors away from mine and shuts it behind him. I stare at it for a while, silently wishing he would sit with me for once. But Noah has his own friends. We might have shared a womb, but friends is where Noah draws the line. We can share anything but friends, because he likes to be the leader of his group. So I enter my own compartment and sit by the window, where I can stare out and watch the world whiz by once the train gets going.

I miss Noah, even if he is only a few compartments away from me. I can't dwell on it for too long though, because the door to my compartment swings open. Sirius Black enters, sees me and freezes in his spot, shifting his weight awkwardly for a second. "Mind if I sit here?"

I nodded, and he grinned, dragging his trunk in before he flopped into the seat across from me. He blew a piece of hair from his face and sighed happily. I imagine for a moment that I'm Noah. I want to lean back in my seat and ask how his summer was. All the while being totally cool and forgetting about my senile old Grandmother who cannot remember my name. But I say nothing. Instead, Sirius just keeps grinning at me.

"Eleanor, right?"

I nodded.

"Where's your brother?"

"He went to wait for his friends in another compartment."

"That's weird. Aren't twins supposed to stick together?"

"Only if they're Siamese," I shrugged. He stared at me for a moment before he cracked up laughing.

"I get it, stick together," he laughed.

Bewildered, I began laughing too, though I was a little uncertain. I hadn't intended to make a joke.

"Noah doesn't like to hang out with me at school all the time. I mean, we share pretty much everything. I think he just wants to be alone sometimes."

"I have a brother," Sirius said thoughtfully. Sirius is a very handsome guy. This was the most I had ever spoken to him. I already knew he had a brother. I knew his brother's name was Regulus and that they did not get on at all, but I said nothing. Noah said I think too much, that I notice things too much and that that is the making of a freak. Then again, my brother is a complete moron. I shouldn't really listen to what he says. "He's an idiot."

"I was just thinking the same thing about Noah."

"Why were you on the train so early anyway?"

I shrugged. "My mum couldn't stay too long. She had things to do."

Sirius peered at me for a moment. "Mine too." He sounded almost suspicious. "My Mum's a bit of a cow sometimes."

My mouth fell open a little, shocked at hearing someone speak about their mother like that. He took one look at my expression and laughed. Sirius's laugh was husky and loud, like a bark, yet it was beautiful too. I don't know why I felt so surprised by what he had said. Noah called our Mum things like that all the time. He used to get really mad and punch the wall when things got too heated. Mum says Noah has 'anger issues'. Noah says Mum is just a moody cow who doesn't know what she's talking about. My Mum might have flaws, but I still loved her. She's my mum, after all.

"What's your mother like?" Sirius asked. I had a feeling he was just trying to keep the conversation going.

"She's… different," I replied lamely, and he grinned.

"Difficult, you mean."

"Yeah," I said truthfully. "I do."

"I like your brother though. He's much better than mine. Yours is pretty good at Quidditch too, isn't he?"

"Not as good as me," a new voice interrupted. James Potter appeared, along with Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew trailing behind him. Heidi Roberts and Lisa Collins followed them, sitting in the corner by themselves and giggling to each other. They were best friends. I wished Lucy were here. Lucy might not be my best friend, but I liked to hang out with her. In fact, she sat with me for most of my classes. She didn't call me a freak like Noah did, so that was a plus. Lisa and Heidi kept glancing over at Sirius and bursting into uncontrollable giggles, blushing furiously when he winked at them. He enjoyed the attention, that much is obvious.

Out of the Marauders, Peter is the quietest. Even though Remus is in their group, I still think it's Peter. He sat beside me, and we talked about everything under the sun in pretty hushed tones; it isn't hard to keep a conversation with Peter. He is just plain nice. A little naïve at times. James and Sirius laugh and call him a twat whenever he accidentally gets something wrong – at which point his entire face turns a bright red, which causes Heidi and Lisa to collapse into more giggles – and forces Remus to kindly pat his shoulder like he did for me when I accidentally blew up my cauldron in potions.

Severus doesn't like the Marauders. He calls them bullies. It makes me wary of them, but I can't help but like them as I watch them messing around.

"This is the year boys," James grinned. Though he spoke to his fellow Marauders, I was intrigued.

Curiously, I asked, "The year for what?"

James smirked, apparently uncaring if he really knew me or not. "The year I get Lily, of course, my dear Ellen."

"Eleanor," Sirius corrected. "Her name is Eleanor."

"Woops. Sorry," James apologized.

"You insensitive prick," Sirius muttered.

"Coming from Sirius Black that really is an insult Prongs," Remus winked.

"Oi! I'm a perfect gentleman, aren't I, Eleanor?"

All four of them stared at me expectantly. Isn't it strange that before this point I had never even spoken to James or Sirius properly, and yet they were involving me in their conversation so readily? I swallowed, smiling. "Oh yes. A total sweetheart."

"You see!" Sirius grinned triumphantly.

"You must be delusional Ellie, wait 'til you get to know him better, he's a complete pig," James smirked, before Sirius punched him hard on the arm. They began play-fighting, while Peter watched on, clearly fascinated. Remus, like the mature boy he tried to be, rolled his eyes and pulled out a good book, ignoring them entirely. Heidi and Lisa shrieked when their fight grew more violent and they fell on the floor. The two boys were laughing, which made it okay in their eyes to punch each other and give each other bruises.

I was smiling. James had not only included me, he had called me Ellie. I love it when people do that. Eleanor sounds so formal and boring, especially when my Mum says it. I watched the rain for a while through the window. James and Sirius quit their fighting, instead beginning an animated conversation about a Quidditch tactic James had invented during the summer. I was almost disappointed when the train began to slow down. As we stood to get up, James grinned at me.

"Want me to save you a seat the Sorting Ceremony Ellie?"

If Noah could see me now, he'd think I'd have drugged James somehow. "Yes, please James."

"Sure," he said, shrugging nonchalantly. He didn't seem to notice my thrilled expression, or how I felt as if I were walking on cloud nine. Perhaps making friends really was as easy as Noah said it was. I need to stop writing now though. Lucy is trying to sleep in the bed beside me, and my constant scribbling is probably irritating her. I'll tell you about the Sorting Ceremony soon though, I promise.

Love,

Eleanor.